


Data Mechanics

by Anonymous



Category: Dark Matter (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, Fake Marriage, Heist
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-25
Updated: 2021-02-25
Packaged: 2021-03-15 15:42:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,710
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29686239
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: When Adrian brings them a job hitting an exclusive casino/resort the only way in is through the honeymoon suite.
Relationships: Nyx Harper/Two | Portia Lin
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4
Collections: Five Figure Fanwork Exchange 2020





	Data Mechanics

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Damkianna](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Damkianna/gifts).



> The AU features aren't the important part of this story -- Nyx survived Misaki's attack and, while many of season 3's events have happened, the whole alien invasion plot line got stretched out a bit to give me room to play.
> 
> Many thanks to Scytale for betaing.
> 
> Damkianna, I hope you enjoy!

Adrian always looked kind of nervous, even when he wasn't. Something about his big eyes and small size. So when he called about the job, Two assumed the worst. 

"No," he said, "no, it's not a trap, I vetted the guy _thoroughly_."

"As thoroughly as you vetted Ambrosia?" she asked.

"That was different," he protested. "I knew her -- I thought I knew her, and she changed. This guy I've never met before, so I did some digging. And even if it is a trap?" He let out a low whistle. "The payout might _still_ be worth it."

"I'm not doing the job if it means getting shot, Adrian," Two said. "I hate getting set up."

"Just hear me out before you say no?" He watched her hopefully, and when she rolled her eyes in defeat, he crowed. "Yes! Okay, so have you heard of the Ivory Rose Casino?"

"That's not really the kind of circles we move in," Three said. "Wait. Wait, is this a heist? Are you hiring us for a heist?"

"I _am_ ," Adrian said, pleased.

Three wheeled on Two. "Hey, boss, you promised me a heist."

"I did, didn't I?" When Three grinned boyishly at her, she said, "I'm vetoing if it sounds too dangerous."

"Of course you are, Mother," he drawled. "All right, Adrian, give us the details."

"Well, the client is the former owner, Bazyli Flores. He was forced out last year under mysterious circumstances he did _not_ want to talk about. He was blackmailed. I _did_ try to figure out what he was blackmailed _with_ , and he, unsurprisingly, wouldn't say. What he _did_ say is that the honeymoon suite of the resort is bugged. Cameras, mics, the whole shebang. That's how they got him, and a few others since him. The job is to destroy all the stored footage they've got. The _pay_ is that this casino has crazy money moving through it, and he has the combination to the safe. He doesn't even want a cut of whatever you steal, and he assures me it'll be a big payday. Along with the combination, he's provided floor plans and guard schedules."

"Sounds too good to be true," Two said, crossing her arms. 

"Let me finish!" Adrian said, flapping his hands at her. "Security is decently tight, but nothing compared to what you're used to -- they count a lot on slipping under the radar. They pay off Ferrous to keep obvious bad guys out of their airspace, but mostly they just pretend to be operating at about half the income level they're actually on. Including on their taxes, so really this is a service to the galaxy."

"Of course," Two said drily. 

Three thumped her arm. "See? We're the good guys. We can't say no."

"What's the catch?" she asked.

"You'll have to be undercover to get in," Adrian said. "Flores said a newlywed couple would get the least scrutiny."

"We've been married before," Three said eagerly, gesturing between himself and Two. "Fake married. Whatever."

"Ummm," Adrian said. "The two of you together are pretty recognizable."

"Well, I was promised a heist," Three said. "I'm going on this heist."

\--

It took two hours of arguing to convince Three that he wasn't a candidate for undercover work. The next hour was spent arguing about why, then, they needed to do a heist. "If I don't get play good spy, bad spy, I don't understand why we can't just go in guns blazing and make it a robbery."

"I don't know how else to say, _they're allied with Ferrous_ ," Adrian said. His head was on his arms on his desk, and his voice was muffled through the connection. "They've got light ground forces because they have the solar system locked down tight. You come in guns blazing and they'll have a warship after you in a minute. I'm pretty sure they can get GA or Ferrous forces on the ground faster, too."

"Transfer Transit?" Nyx asked. She, along with the rest of the crew, had drifted onto the bridge as the argument had dragged on.

"Flores thinks so, but it's new, after his time, so I'm not sure. I'd assume yes, just in case."

"Sorry, just wondering how a warship matters when we have the Blink Drive," Three said. He was sulking, had claimed a chair and put his feet up on the console, and had his arms crossed and chin tucked into his chest.

"Wouldn't it be nice if our bounties didn't get any bigger?" Two asked. "Smash and grab's the back-up plan."

Three grumbled into his chest.

Five paced in front of the screen. "So, we know we're _not_ sending Three in--"

"I can have a gentle touch," Three muttered.

"Mm," Five disagreed. "I'm the obvious pick for destroying the blackmail material."

"You're too young," Two said, at the same time as Six said, "Absolutely not."

Five's eyebrows went up. "I'm better with computers than any of you."

"Did you hear, when he said _undercover as newlyweds_? And _the honeymoon suite is bugged?_ " Two asked. "You're not doing this. You can write the virus to destroy the footage, but you're staying on the ship."

Five subsided, understanding dawning on her face. She _could_ do it, if she had to. Two had no doubts about that. But nothing about this job _had_ to be done, and she wasn't putting the kid into a situation like this just for money.

"Who, then?" Five asked.

They all glanced at each other. "It's a bear trap, isn't it?" Two said. "I'm the most durable. I'll go."

"We don't have to take the job," Six said.

"I believe under the level of surveillance in the resort, I would not be able to maintain a human cover," the Android said. "I'm sorry."

"I'll do it," Nyx said. Two looked at her, looked for any hesitation on her face, any reason to turn the job down. She found none. Instead, Nyx pushed herself off the console she'd been leaning on and moved to the center of the room. "It makes sense. I've never met a casino I couldn't take a jackpot at."

"And you're fine with...?" Two asked.

Nyx shrugged. "As long as you are."

\--

The ring was a size too big, and Nyx held in place with her thumb as she and Two checked into the resort. Two looked good, if entirely unlike herself. The Android had taken care of her styling, and had chosen light colors and soft fabrics, and bleached her hair blonde. Today, she was in a floaty summer dress. It was floral. Two's eyes, when she glanced over at Nyx, were blue, the contacts bright.

"Hey, babe?" she said, and her voice, at least, was her own, even if her words weren't. "Apparently our room has some pretty bad damage from the last guests. They're upgrading us to the honeymoon suite."

The honeymoon suite. The bugged suite, the one where they collected blackmail material. Huh. Nyx arched her eyebrows. "No extra charge, right?"

"None!" the receptionist answered, chipper and bland.

She shrugged. It was a known risk, part of the reason it was Nyx with Two. "Does it have a bath?"

"The biggest tub you've ever seen," the receptionist assured her.

"Congratulations to us, then," Nyx said.

"I'll go ahead and have your luggage sent up," the receptionist said. "Enjoy your stay, Mrs and Mrs Noble. And congratulations again!"

"Thank you," Two said, grabbing their small bags. They hadn't brought guns, the risk of discovery too high, but the small bags contained comms for reaching the _Raza_ in case of emergency. "Let's go, Nikki. I want to check out the pool."

"Do they have a hot tub?" Nyx asked, glancing around the lobby. There were cameras in every corner, and two on the entrance to the casino. If they wanted to get around unseen, they would need Five to make them a blindspot or two.

"I'm sure they do," Two said, calling the elevator. There was a camera pointed at the elevator doors, and when they entered the elevator, one there as well.

Nyx hugged Two from behind, hooking her chin over Two's shoulder so she could whisper into her ear and look romantic, rather than conniving. She didn't miss the way Two stiffened against her before she relaxed, the echoes of a possible future where Two turned and shoved her against a wall and -- the echoes stopped there, before she could tell if Two would kiss her or punch her. "They're locked down as tight as Hyperion-8."

"Better accommodations, though," Two murmured back. "I plan on using the tub before we hit their safe. Unlimited hot water."

"We're already married," Nyx said, a bit louder. "You don't have to seduce me any more." It was a lovely thought, though, being seduced by Two. Nyx rather thought she might be as good at seduction as she was at fighting.

The elevator whirred to a quiet stop and let them off at the top floor. The honeymoon suite, filled with cameras. It was palatial and expensive -- one wall was entirely a window, looking out over the landscaped grounds, tropical and lush. The bed was mounded with pillows and soft blankets, everything in soft shades of cream and gold. It was rather like walking into a gold bar.

Fitting, given that this casino moved more money in a day than Nyx had ever had in her life.

Two dropped their bags at the foot of the bed and kicked them under. It had taken a hell of a lot of work to get a cover thick enough that Two wouldn't be flagged immediately and there was no way they were blowing it by being careless.

Their other bags had somehow not only beaten them up but already been unpacked. It felt like a threat, rather than good customer service. The service was fast, quiet, unseen, and knew exactly what they'd brought with them. "How nice!" Nyx cooed, looking around the room, their things hanging in the closet, a tablet by the bed for late night reading. "Now we can just have fun. Pool?"

"Pool," Two agreed.

Before she could head for the swimsuits, Nyx grabbed her hand and spun her. They ended up close, nose to nose. "You think the guards jack off to the footage?" Nyx breathed.

"I'd rather not know," Two breathed back, and spun Nyx out once more.

She grabbed the swimsuits and tossed Two hers. The pool had a view of the safe room, according to the plans the client had given them. They knew where things were _supposed_ to be, and they had a guard schedule that wasn't _too_ old, but there was no point getting killed by laziness on the biggest payout of their lives. And besides, who didn't want to do recon at the pool?

Getting changed was strange. Nyx wanted to look at Two, and she _could_. There were cameras in this room, even if they didn't know exactly where, yet. It would look strange for newlyweds to be shy around each other. But Two had always had a wall around her -- Nyx had thought they were flirting, when they'd first met. She'd thought they might have been moving to something beyond flirting, too. But Two had pulled back, and Four -- Ryo -- had been there, and he _hadn't_ pulled back, and then she'd wished he had.

She still had nerve pain from the poison Misaki used on her.

And now -- well, it was weird. It was a weird situation. She planned to take advantage of it, which probably didn't reflect well on her, but she wasn't too fussed. If she'd cared about being an unequivocally good person, she wouldn't have done so well in prison.

So she came up behind Two while she was pulling her top into place and slid her hands over the smooth skin of Two's abdomen. Going higher still seemed like a risk -- the futures she saw were fragmented and confusing. Two withdrawing, Two reacting on instinct, and sometimes that instinct was violence and sometimes it was passion, and Nyx didn't need to see the future to know that Two was a woman who needed to move at her own pace. 

"Do you think these newlyweds should break in the bed?" she asked, loud enough for any mics to pick it up.

Two turned in her arms, eyes unreadable even to Nyx, and slid her arms around Nyx's neck in return. They swayed together for a moment, pressed together like lovers, the emptiness of the intimacy on the edge of unbearable. Two said, "The bed will still be here in an hour. I want to catch the sunset. Come on, the receptionist said they have strawberries."

"You think they're real?" Nyx asked, detaching from Two and grabbing towels for the both of them.

Two followed her to the door. "With what we're paying, they better be."

"Yeah, corps never cut corners," Nyx said drily. The elevator was just as quick and quiet on the way down as it had been on the way up. Nyx glanced at the camera.

"Never," Two agreed solemnly. "Hey, how much did we say we could lose at the casino again? I've been itching for some roulette."

"Tova, honey," Nyx said, making her voice stern, a little bit hurt. "You promised. Not until tomorrow."

Two looked at her feet, faking contrition. "Sorry, Nikki. I won't."

"You better not." Nyx drew in a soothing breath, wondered for a moment if she was overselling it, and said, "I don't want to fight on our honeymoon."

There. A perfect excuse for Two to be sneaking around, dropped nice and casual. If the guards noticed her and started running back through the footage, they'd have a perfect excuse to stop.

Over a long career of criminality, Nyx had learned a few things about how people worked; a lot of them didn't want to. Not everyone was lazy, but enough were. If you gave someone a reason they thought was good enough, they'd stop looking for another.

\--

They took the long way to the pool, getting the lay of the halls and how people moved through them. When they finally reached it, the pool was clear and blue, more water than Nyx had seen in a long time. It was half filled with people; groups of various sizes, small children, large children, men cannon-balling off the diving board with whoops and screams.

It was loud enough that they could probably have a real conversation.

Two got them drinks while Nyx grabbed them some chairs with a view of the building that housed the safe. It looked like a pool shed, masked by greenery, but the pool attendant that lurked near it was suspiciously muscular, and there was the bulge of a baton at her belt.

Nyx took a sip of her drink and felt her eyebrows go up. It was sugary, fruity, and the alcohol kicked her in the back of the throat. "Wow," she said, enjoying Two's smirk. "We're starting early today?"

"It _is_ our honeymoon," Two said, perching on the end of the lounger, next to Nyx's feet, and taking a sip of her own violently blue drink. "What's the point of getting married if we can't indulge?"

"A genius," Nyx said, and held her drink to the side so she could drop a quick kiss on Two's lips. Two was warm as ever, soft, pliable, her lips sweet from her own ridiculous drink. "Someone should marry you."

"Someone did," Two said, and her fondness didn't sound entirely like Tova's. "Go, swim, I'll watch our stuff."

"Thanks, love," Nyx said, taking another sip of her drink before putting it down.

While she swam, she counted the guests and the guards and watched how quickly any splashed water was cleaned up. Didn't want their security slipping and falling, it seemed.

There were guards worked in among the guests, as well as staff. She wasn't sure she'd noticed them all -- there were a few guests that were just a little too aware of the space around them, their shoes a little too practical, but the hope was that security wouldn't see them coming. If they played it right, it didn't matter if they spotted all the guards, because the guards wouldn't spot _them_.

When planning, Adrian had booked their reservation for the end of the month, a few days before the money was due for transport off-world, and it seemed that the security was heavy to match the payout.

When Nyx swam over to the edge of the pool and hoisted herself up on her elbows, Two came to meet her. She sat at the edge, her legs dangling into the water on either side of Nyx's shoulders. Nyx wanted to run a hand up her calf, resisted, then realized she didn't have to. After all, it wasn't _her_ doing it, it was Nikki.

Two shivered under her touch, smooth skin pulling up into gooseflesh despite the heat of the day. When she leaned down so her blonde hair covered their faces, her voice was husky. "Shift changes on the hour."

"Wonder when they bring the money out," Nyx murmured back. "Too many witnesses during the day. When does the pool close?"

Two glanced around, kicking her feet absently in the water. "Sounds like an after dinner plan."

"What now, then?"

Two hummed and leaned back on her hands. Nyx kept her hand loosely around Two's ankle, paddling gently to stay in place. When she spoke, she was almost tentative. A data point. "I head there's dancing here. And a show tonight."

"How could we pass that up?" Nyx asked. She smiled up at Two, and it wasn't part of the act -- she wanted to smile at Two. She wanted to dance with her, too. After this, she wasn't sure how much leeway she'd be allowed. Wasn't sure whether she was ready to ask, either.

She hadn't seen Four becoming Ryo, after all. She wasn't sure she was ready for any more surprises.

\--

Two, as promised, spent a long time in the shower. Nyx spent the time exploring the suite. She made it look casual, admiring the art, the tasteful knick-knacks, the view, but she found a pinhole camera in one of the statues. It pointed right at the bed, so when she put the statue back down, she turned it to point out the window. There were definitely others, but she liked to stick a thumb in the all-seeing eye whenever she could.

Two left the shower looking entirely like herself and not at all like her cover. Her hair, dark with water, looked like her own, and her eyes were closed as she scrubbed at her face. Nyx's stomach gave a sickening swoop. This, somehow, was too intimate. They'd met getting stripped down and decontaminated; the first thing she'd known about Two was the kind of underwear she wore. But there was such a difference between what a person was forced to do and what they chose, and the futures that spun out, predicted and imaginary, were dizzying.

"Wear this," Nyx said, tossing a dress Two's way to cover for her lapse.

Two looked at the dress in her hands, a slinky silver number, and raised her eyebrows. "I know I didn't pack this."

"I took some liberties," Nyx admitted easily. "Come on. For me?"

"Fine," Two agreed, mouth curved in a lopsided smile.

It was floor length, slit high on the leg and cut low in the front. Watching Two get into it just made Nyx want to get her back out of it.

Nyx wore a slim cut black suit and took Two to dinner, feeling rather showy for a marriage that didn't exist. But today it did. It was real for the week. And tonight, the marriage bed would be real, too. They'd known it might be necessary; that was why Two hadn't let Five take the job, after all. But it hadn't seemed real until this moment, Nyx's hand on the small of Two's back, her palms damp with nerves. With, if she was being honest, anticipation.

She managed to relax a little during dinner, but there was a knot in the bottom of her stomach. It would have put her off her appetite, if the food wasn't so much better than she was used to.

Dusk on this world was incredible, brilliant orange and purple streaking across the horizon, and the rotation of the planet must have been slow, because the sunset lasted almost an hour. The dining room was set up with a wall of windows, facing the setting sun, and their table faced the view. They sat beside each other to enjoy it, and they weren't doing their job, but they got so few sunsets in their lives.

This, too, was a prize.

The food was amazing as well, locally grown, fresh. The Android did her best with what they had, but what they had couldn't hold a candle to this.

"Living like a rich person is great," Nyx couldn't stop herself from saying. "We should do this all the time."

Two gave her a sideways smirk. "Sounds like a plan."

Two's knee brushed hers under the table and didn't flinch away. Suddenly, Nyx regretted wearing pants. If she'd worn a dress as well, they could have been skin to skin. She pressed back, and Two didn't pull away. Under the table, no one would see. This wasn't for the cover. But it was a reminder of what _would_ be for the cover, later, when they _were_ skin to skin.

She'd interpret it later. 

Now, the waiter was coming by and lighting a candle as the last traces of the sunset disappeared and the world dropped into shades of blue. "Would you ladies like dessert?" he asked.

"Why not?" Two asked, looking at Nyx. "Surprise us."

"All right, madam," he said and disappeared as promptly as he'd appeared.

Nyx had realized early on that Two wasn't as hard as her reputation, but she was so soft here, so... relaxed. Despite the cameras, despite the payout, there was no tension around her eyes, no rigidity in her spine. It was... intriguing. Had Nyx been lazy? Had she allowed herself to take the easy explanation, and not the real one? How well _did_ she know Two?

The waiter reappeared with a pot of creme brûlée, topped with fresh berries, and set it between them with a flourish.

They cracked it together, starting at opposite ends and working their way towards each other.

When they were done, Nyx felt thoroughly romanced. That it was based on false pretenses didn't matter. Pleasure was pleasure, and even the real type didn't last.

There was a show in the bar after dinner, some classical thing with lots of stringed instruments and lots of drinks available. They were nowhere near the safe, and the rest of the night's work was on Two, so Nyx let herself get a little drunk. It was crowded in the bar, and when Nyx got up to get another drink, a man stole her chair. Instead of starting something, she sat herself down right in Two's lap, winding her arms around Two's neck. Two stiffened, then relaxed, resting on hand on Nyx's leg, a comforting counterweight.

"Are you having fun?" Nyx asked, teasing and warm. When they went upstairs, they were going to fuck. They'd agreed on it, on the ship. Three had complained from the moment he was told he wasn't on the job till the moment they stepped off the _Raza_ and onto the station they took their connecting flight from, pausing only briefly to beg them to save the tapes. ("You've gotta make it up to me _somehow_ ," had been his argument. "I mean, if you want to do a live show, I wouldn't say no to that, either." " _No,_ " Two had said, firmly enough that he'd finally thrown up his hands and sulked away. "You still owe me a heist!" had been the parting shot, but it had, at least, been parting.)

Nyx had been casual about it, off-hand, when she'd offered to do the job with Two. She hadn't let on that she'd been thinking about getting her fingers between Two's thighs since their first fight on Hyperion-8.

Nyx was an opportunist. It was how she'd ended up free, it was how she'd ended up in prison, it was how she'd ended up on the _Raza_. She wasn't about to pass up an opportunity like this.

She nuzzled into Two's neck. Two's hair still smelt faintly of bleach. "Take me to bed, wife."

Two made a small, indescribable sound, quiet enough that Nyx wouldn't have heard it from an inch further away. Some possible futures bloomed into existence, some collapsed into nothing.

Her prescience worked on inflection points. Everyone made decisions all the time, and most of them led to the same outcome. It didn't matter, most of the time, which side of the bed you got up on, or whether you had eggs or cereal from breakfast. If she had to see every decision, every tiny ripple of every tiny change, all the ways that a person could have an almost identical day, she would go mad. Most it was just _data_. And then, the moments that _did_ make a difference, she had something to work with.

She knew Two well at this point. She had a lot of data to work with. It wouldn't be impossible for Two to surprise her, because impossible things happened around the _Raza_ all the time, but it certainly wouldn't be easy.

And yet, every time she touched Two it was an inflection point. Every time, futures echoed and collapsed around Two's answering move. It was enough to give a girl motion sickness. No matter how much data she had on Two it was never quite enough. Two had been too many different people to be entirely predictable. She was too much at war with herself.

It was part of the appeal.

At this inflection point, possibility became actuality and Two scooped her up as she laughed and carried her across the bar to the elevator. It was, perhaps, too much a show of strength, but Nyx wasn't about to tell her to stop.

Two set her down in the elevator, but Nyx stayed pressed close. If she stayed close enough through this job, maybe some of it would stick. Maybe Two wouldn't run from her when they got back to the ship. Maybe she would, but the imprint of her hands would stay.

Nyx brushed Two's nose with her own as Two hit the button for their floor. "Are you going to kiss me?" she asked.

"You're drunk," Two murmured back, not quite censorious. "I shouldn't take advantage."

"I got drunk so you could," Nyx told her and kissed her. She felt Two's hands before they landed on her waist, felt her nails before Two curled her fingers into Nyx's back, felt Two's tongue before it pressed into her mouth, chasing the taste of liquor.

It was deja vu and jamais vu and present and future and suddenly past. It was overwhelming. It wasn't enough.

When the elevator slid to a stop, they stumbled blindly into the hall and fumbled the door to the suite open. By the time they'd reached the bed, Nyx's shirt gaped open to her waist, and her pants were sagging off her hips. It was the work of a moment to shove Two's slinky dress the rest of the way off her shoulders and watch it drop to the floor.

Two tossed her back onto the bed and pulled her pants off in a sharp, efficient movement. Nyx propped herself up on her elbows to watch as Two crawled up the bed towards her. Then she got impatient and leaned forward to meet her.

They kissed a while longer, Two's knee braced between her legs and Nyx grinding idly against it. The heat in her belly didn't rise to a roar until Two grabbed her wrists and pressed them to the mattress over her head. Two's hair hung in disarray around her face, and she was flushed, chewing her lip. "Don't pull my hair," she said, and dipped to kiss Nyx's hip bone while peeling off her underwear.

Nyx was almost embarrassingly wet, and the air of the room against her bare cunt was a shock. It wasn't bare for long, though, before Two covered it with her mouth.

She didn't pull Two's hair. She _did_ pull her own, claw at the bedding, and bit her own wrist in the effort. None of her data on Two had shown her _that_. When she was done shaking her way down from her peak, she flipped Two, a move she'd used before in sparring. This time, Two went willingly, a smug smile on her mouth. Nyx kissed the taste of herself off Two's lips and started working her fingers into Two's cunt, not bothering to pull off her underwear, just diving in beneath them.

By the time she had three fingers in Two, Two had lost the smug look and was tossing her head against the pillow. At four, she was begging wordlessly.

"Come on," Nyx said. "You can take it."

When she tucked her thumb in and worked her fist into Two, Two whimpered a punched out whine. Her cunt was a vise around Nyx's wrist, so powerful that Nyx half feared she would never get her hand back.

There were worse ways to lose a hand.

She turned her wrist ever so gently and bent to suck at Two's clit, and that pushed Two over her own edge. She clamped down even tighter around Nyx's wrist, and then went slack and loose and boneless, stirring in discomfort and overstimulation as Nyx carefully worked her hand out of her.

"You're incredible," she told Two, wiping her hand on the coverlet and laying down next to her.

"I could say the same to you," Two said. She recovered quickly, thanks to her nanites -- already she was breathing evenly. But the sweat still stood out on her skin. Nyx idly wondered how many times she could get Two off, if she could take advantage of Two's lack of refractory period.

Two, thoroughly debauched, took a moment to take her bra off before she rolled onto her side and pushed Nyx's hair out of her face. "Hey," she said. "Get some rest."

It had been easy, while they were fucking, to forget _why_. But this, the beginning of Two's second act, snapped Nyx immediately into reality. "In a moment," she said, and it was easy to be Nikki, trying desperately to stop what was coming.

Two kissed her gently and got up, heading for the bathroom and stepping out of her panties as she went. Nyx watched her go and though she had bruises in the shapes of Two's fingers on her thighs, she'd never felt further apart.

\--

Two waited for Nyx to fall asleep before she head for the casino. Part of it was the cover, part of it was that she didn't quite want to leave. Nyx could have faked sleep, had done so for about half an hour before she'd actually drifted off. Two sat at the edge of the bed, and dressed slowly and quietly, in something more practical than the dress she'd worn for dinner. 

She glanced back as she left.

She didn't think the cameras would pick it up, so there was no reason for it. It was just... Nyx was beautiful, relaxed across the bed, naked, with the sheets around her waist. Her hair spread out in a dark halo, and one of her hands reached for the place where Two had been, just moments before.

Looking as long as she wanted would have been taking advantage, so Two forced herself away. The elevator was lonelier by herself, and seemed slower besides.

When it let her out, she went straight for the casino. "Where's the small stakes stuff?" she asked as she exchanged units for chips. "The missus doesn't like me to lose too much."

"The tables closer to the walls are lower stakes," the man told her. "And, of course, there's the slots."

"Thank you," she said, flashing him a smile and heading for a roulette table.

She worked her way around the room, losing steadily and with good cheer, until she saw a guard stop to talk to the chip exchange guy. She played two more games after that, and then cashed out what remained of her chips.

Instead of heading back to the room, she took a walk past the pool and the safe house. After hours, it was more visibly guarded. A group of three, pretending to be off-duty workers, hung around in front of it. They were all smoking, a good excuse for being together outside.

She waved to them, the satisfaction of action making her movements languid and easy. "Hey guys," she called, resting her elbows on the fence around the pool. "You guys work here, right? I have a question."

One of them pushed off the wall and headed over. He wore a friendly smile that didn't reach his eyes. "Yeah, we work here. What's up?"

"Okay, so -- this is embarrassing, but it's my honeymoon and I want to do something really nice for my wife, you know?" He nodded encouragingly when she paused. "So, I might have lost a little bit more tonight than I meant to -- I was trying -- no, it doesn't matter, you probably hear all sorts of sob stories here, right? I was just trying to win enough to buy us an extra day at the resort, she works so hard, you know? Sorry, you didn't ask!" She laughed, faking embarrassment. 

"No, no, it's fine, it's really sweet of you to try and do that," the guard said. His body language had loosened as she rambled. If he saw her as a threat still, it wasn't consciously. "What was the question?"

"Is there a table or machine that's maybe a little easier? I don't need a big payout or anything, I know that's not really how it works, I've been losing money long enough for that, but is there maybe a table where I can take her where she's more likely to win a bit, before I break the news about losing a lot?"

The guard glanced over his shoulder at his companions, eyebrows raised. "I'm not supposed to tell people this, so don't spread it around, okay? I'm only letting you know because it's your honeymoon. Try the slots on the end of the rows, get the one right dead center in the middle of the room, if you can. It doesn't pay out every time, but maybe one in four, and it pays out pretty big."

" _Thank_ you," she said. "You're an absolute lifesaver. If you ever see me in the bar, wave and I'll send you a drink. But you have to promise not to tell my wife how we know each other."

This time, his grin was a little more honest. "No problem, ma'am. Have a good night, and congratulations."

"Thank you," she said again. "You have a good night too! It's wonderful out, isn't it?"

"It sure is, ma'am," he said, starting to retreat. That was good -- she didn't know how much longer she could keep up chipper conversation.

She finished her walk, looping all the way around the resort's outside areas before heading back in. It was helpful to walk the grounds, rather than just seeing the topo-maps. They'd have a decently clear path to the planned meet up with the _Marauder_ , if they got dollies or some other way of moving the units.

And it really was a beautiful night, warm and clear and lush. It was a semi-tropical environment, and everything, everywhere she looked, was green. In the dark, lit softly by moons and stars and the gentle lights of the resort, it was like walking through a dream. There was nothing like this on the _Raza_ , not even when Sarah had been building a greenhouse into the programming of the ship's computer.

She would never leave the _Raza_ , but it was good to remember that it wasn't the entire world. That things could be different, if she let them.

The elevator back up was as quiet and peaceful as the rest of the night. Or maybe she was carrying the quiet with her. Two was having _fun_ for the first time in a long time; yeah it could all go to shit, but it wasn't starting there, and at this point she'd take what she could get.

The quiet was in the room, as well. They hadn't pulled the curtains fully tight when going to bed, and a beam of moonlight lay across the bed, catching the edge of Nyx's hand and the loose curl of her fingers. Two twitched the curtain the rest of the way closed and slid into bed. Nyx rolled over, throwing an arm over her waist. She fell asleep like that, held by Nyx, body thrumming with satisfaction.

\--

When Nyx woke up, she forgot for a moment where she was and who she was with. For a moment, she was in Four's room on the _Raza_ , and her stomach twisted with all the tension that had been present in those moments. When she turned her head and saw that it was Two's face on the pillow beside her, the tension drained from her so quickly she felt boneless.

"Hey, you," she said, voice just loud enough for the inches between them. 

Two woke quickly and quietly, a flutter of eyelashes and an alert gaze. Nyx didn't know how that data would apply in the future, but she filed it away nonetheless. "Hey," Two murmured, no louder than Nyx had been.

"Are you going to kiss me good morning?" Nyx asked. It was pushing, but she couldn't seem to stop herself. She'd been wrist-deep in Two last night. Asking for a kiss seemed like nothing, in comparison.

Two grinned, lopsided and soft with sleep. "You tell me," she said.

Nyx let the possible futures rise around her and moved forward through them, pressing her lips against Two's. They kissed for a long moment in the golden light of the new day before Two pulled regretfully away. And it _was_ real regret; Two wasn't a good enough actress for it to be false. "We have a full day," she said.

"No rest for the wicked," Nyx agreed. She got up first so that she could be the one walking away, this time. She'd volunteered for this; she shouldn't be having trouble keeping apart her feelings from her cover's. She was reading too much into things. She was creating possibilities that didn't exist. She was manipulating the data, searching for the result she wanted.

She took a long shower. At first it was an attempt to get her head together, and then it was about enjoying unrationed hot water. The _Raza_ had many strong points; the crew, the Blink Drive, the freedom. It was a powerhouse of a ship, and it punched above its weight class. It wasn't the most comfortable place to live, though, and the limited hot water was certainly part of that.

Eventually, Two came in and got into the shower with her, so it was a good thing she had moved past thinking about the look on Two's face when she'd pulled away, and imagining how it might have changed if Nyx had said, "The day can wait," and reeled her back in.

That she started thinking _similar_ thoughts at the sight of Two stepping naked into the shower was not worth mentioning.

"Good thinking. The mics shouldn't be able to pick us up in here," Two murmured under the spray as she wet her hair. "Pass the shampoo."

Nyx tried to look like she'd planned this and passed the shampoo, doing her best not to watch the water rolling down Two's breasts. "How'd it go last night?" she asked.

"Good," Two said. "They move the money around four, and there's three guards at the boathouse."

"Just three?" Nyx asked, aghast. It couldn't be this easy. "That's nothing. Were they at least huge? Heavily armed?"

"No, and no. They were actually kind of nice. I'll feel bad for kicking their asses." Two sounded a little rueful, but not in the least regretful.

Nyx raised her eyebrows. "You talked to them?"

"Just briefly. Wanted to check their response to guests. Pretty gentle. Can't believe they haven't been hit before."

"There has to be a catch," Nyx insisted. "If they're as into blackmail as the client said, they have to be expecting a hit. No one with this kind of money depends on three guards and secrecy."

"And a Ferrous cruiser hiding behind the moon," Two reminded her. "We wouldn't be able to get off-planet without the Blink Drive."

"There's gotta be something we're missing," Nyx said.

Two looked at her, intent, searching. "Is that instinct telling you that, or...?"

Nyx grimaced. "I can't see that far ahead. It's instinct and past experience. Just... don't get careless."

"Have you ever seen me be careless?" Two asked, light enough to reassure, but not so light as to laugh at Nyx's concerns.

Nyx couldn't stop herself from looking Two up and down. "I wouldn't call you careless, no." And wonder of wonders -- Two blushed.

\--

Finding the catch took the rest of the week. During their search, they wandered the resort, arm in arm, going to all of the events and learning the guard schedules, the camera layouts, where the restricted areas were hidden beneath walls of ivy. 

When they found the restricted area, they thought they'd found the catch -- it was almost invisible, and they would have walked right past if someone hadn't gone through. And the look she gave them when she realized she'd been seen -- well, it was half murder, half fear.

"Wow!" Nyx said. "Is that, like, a super exclusive area for high rollers? Or is it for mops or something boring?"

"Mops," the woman said promptly and utterly without shame, despite her pencil skirt and heels. "Sorry you had to see it. We try to keep the maintenance areas out of sight."

"Don't mind us," Two said. "We live on a station, we've seen worse than mops. We're just enjoying real grav and real plants."

"Well," the woman said with a stiff smile. "Don't let me keep you, ladies." 

When she strode away, heels clicking loudly, Nyx tucked her head into Two's neck. "That looks like our way in."

"Which do you want?" Two murmured into her hair, voice low and intimate. "Guards or cameras?"

"You really know how to spoil a girl," Nyx hummed. "I'll take the cameras. He just wanted the footage destroyed, right? I don't have to search through it all for one man's indiscretions?"

"Only if you want to blackmail him yourself."

"You _do_ spoil me."

\--

Through the week, when they weren't walking the halls or sitting poolside and watching the guard movements, they were in the casino. Sometimes they played at separate tables, Two losing and Nyx winning, and sometimes they played together.

The night before the hit, they stayed together.

It was busy in the casino, a weekend, with weekend guests and weekend money, crowded enough that slipping through the press of bodies required turning sideways and moving carefully. Nyx kept a hold of Two's hand, leading her through to a blackjack table.

She started with a small game, wishing absently for a shot of Shadow. Two leaned against the back of her chair, looking pretty and dangerous, a shade too intent to be the arm-candy she was playacting. But her cover had an established gambling problem -- maybe her searching gaze could be played off as that. 

Nyx played blackjack, losing every few games but always winning more than she lost until the others at the table started to grumble about her luck and leave.

When she got up, she had Two carry her chips. They made their way to a roulette wheel, and she watched a couple games before she put her own money down. Roulette was little harder to predict than blackjack, more actual chance behind it, so they stayed only briefly before moving on.

They spent the rest of the night at the craps table. Nyx played conservatively at first, until she got a streak going and a crowd had gathered. She screamed and jumped at each win, hugged Two, hugged the people around them. On the final roll, Two grabbed her wrist and blew across the dice in her palm.

"For luck," she said, with a wink.

Nyx's stomach tightened and swooped. "May she be a lady tonight," she said.

That roll won back the rest of their losses from the job so far. They bowed out, after that, cashing out and going for one last walk through the gardens.

It wasn't enough to make a profit, and hopefully wasn't enough to bring them to the attention of the guards. It was just... insurance. They wouldn't take a loss on this job, even if they couldn't complete it.

Nyx was always a little giddy after winning big. It was silly; gambling was less complex than most things she used her foresight on, but there was something about the environment of the casino, and, of course, the money. She couldn't hide that giddiness, and didn't try to -- Nikki was no cardsharp, and would be over the moon at winning the amount of money she just had.

So she let herself swing her arms and chatter to Two and smell the flowers, blooming in the moonlight. It was a beautiful night, with good company. 

Suddenly, she needed to share that, needed Two to know. So often, Two was the stalwart, the Captain, the strong one. Even when she was dying, she didn't like to ask for help. Nyx couldn't change that about her, but maybe she could let Two know that it was okay to have fun, too.

"I've really enjoyed this," she said.

Two smiled at her, but it was Tova's smile, a cover smile. It didn't reach her eyes. "Yeah," she said. "Me too."

"No, I mean --" Even giddy as she was, Nyx knew better than to drop the cover completely. "It's been fun, working with you. I hope we can keep it going."

Realization lifted Two's eyebrows. "Oh," she said. "Um." She leaned in, as if going for a kiss. Nyx lifted her chin and closed her eyes, and when she felt Two's lips brush her ear, she blushed hot. "This job wouldn't have been half as fun without you."

When she pulled away, Nyx felt just as flustered as if Two had kissed her. Her, and not her cover. And wasn't that pretty much what had just happened? Or at least something like it?

When they finally made it back up to their room, it took Nyx a long time to fall asleep.

\--

The catch got them right in the fucking teeth. When they came down for breakfast, there were guards everywhere, men and women they hadn't seen before, wearing uniforms that looked GA at first glance, and not the resort attendant's suits they were used to seeing.

They sat at a table with an older couple. "What's going on?" Nyx asked, as she set down her bowl of yogurt and fresh fruit. "What are all the guards for?"

The man closer to Nyx, stick-thin, tall, and with only a short stubble of silver hair covering his head, leaned in. "I heard they're expecting to be robbed. Isn't it exciting?"

Nyx and Two exchanged glances. "Who would be stupid enough to rob a place like this?" Two asked, setting down her own breakfast. "There's no way off-world."

The other man, shorter and square-jawed, shrugged. "When I tried asking one of them, he told me it was Ferrous Corp business and to keep my nose out of it. Since I quite like my nose, I listened."

"But how did they get here so fast?" Nyx asked. "I didn't hear any ships landing last night."

The first man glanced around, then leaned in conspiratorially. " _I_ think they're clones."

"You think everyone's a clone," his husband said.

"Only because that one time everyone _was_ ," he replied, a little snottily. It sounded like an old argument.

Transfer Transit clones. That would make sense. It would be slightly better than the alternative, too.

Had they given themselves away, somehow? Or had the client snitched on them to get back in with the Ivory Rose? Either way, they needed to move fast.

But how? Nyx stared at Two, urging her to come up with a plan. If they were burned, which was unclear -- if they _were_ , wouldn't the guards have come for them before they left their room? -- but if they were burned, there was no need for subtlety, and going fast and hard was the answer. If they _weren't_ , if something else had put the casino on high alert, they needed to keep their cover until the last possible moment.

Breakfast was tense. Luckily, the couple they were sitting with did most of the talking, which hid some of the awkwardness.

When the couple finished, the tall man stopped before walking away and bent close to the two of them. "Thanks for sitting with us. This breakfast wouldn't have been half as fun without you."

Nyx felt ice go down her spine. When she looked at Two, she could tell Two felt the same. Two was rigid in her seat, grip tight on her silverware.

They were burned, then.

But not completely -- if the resort had been certain they were thieves, they would have struck already. So this was... what? Intimidation? Trying to scare them out of doing the job?

Unlucky for the resort that the crew of the _Raza_ didn't scare easy.

After they finished eating, they started to walk, looking for a place they could talk. Two's arm was rock hard with tension under Nyx's hand. It was too early for the casino, where, in the evening, there was enough noise to cover their voices. Their room certainly wouldn't work, and taking a shower now might look odd. 

As they moved through the resort, it was curiously abandoned. No one swam in the pool, and only an attendant worked by the edge, scrubbing the ground in front of the pool house, exactly where they had planned for Two to drop a thin grease-slick trap. The only others they say as they wandered the gardens were guards, always a few turns in the trail away, always within sight.

"I feel like we missed an announcement," Nyx said. "Like, 'get out, gas leak.'"

Two's cover was falling away, piece by piece. She was no longer warm and languid, but drawn up tight, her gaze flicking around. As much as Nyx had enjoyed the past week, and the person who was not quite Two, this, too, was a pleasure. Two, at work, was sharp as a knife, and Nyx had always liked knives.

"We're burned," Two said, her read of the situation clearly the same as Nyx's. "They're just waiting to spring the trap." She glanced over at Nyx. "Do you want to complete the job or run?"

"Well, we've come all this way," Nyx said. "It would be a waste not to _try_."

Two grinned, small and tight. "You take the camera room. Get a signal out to the _Raza_. We'll be coming in hot. Time to make some noise."

"We still going for the clearing?"

"Tell Six to bring her down wherever he has space. Subtle's out the door."

Nyx grinned. "Let's get this party started."

\--

They hadn't brought guns, but that didn't mean they were unarmed, and it certainly didn't mean they were helpless. Two had hidden a knife in her boot heel, and she palmed it before she went for the pool house. She took the back way -- just because they were expecting her, didn't mean she had to go via the front door. 

The squad surrounding the pool house put the small groups from earlier to shame. There were ten of them, heavily armed and armored. It was bad odds, but she'd faced worse. It helped that they were almost definitely clones -- a clone didn't get one last shot off while it was dying, it just burst into dust.

She'd enjoyed the heavy foliage as a guest, and now she enjoyed it as an intruder -- the first guard didn't see her until her knife was in his throat. He dissolved into dust, and she took the gun from the crumpled pile of clothes. She didn't fire it yet, just kept it tucked low against her thigh. She got two more of them before she was spotted.

Getting into a protracted shoot-out would only give their reinforcements time to arrive, so she trusted in her nanites and went aggressive, grabbing one of the guards and holding him in front of her as she picked off another two. He only stopped one bullet, but that was enough -- she somersaulted out of the way and came up shooting. 

When it was done, the pool was scummy with clone-dust, and she could hear the pounding of the reinforcements running towards her.

The lock was pathetically weak after the show of ten guards. She snapped it with a twist of her wrist. Three would have made some sort of quip about the place begging to be knocked over, but she wasn't Three, so when she stepped inside to a row of Transfer Transit boxes unloading the same guards she'd just taken down, she didn't have to swallow her words.

"Deja vu," she muttered, slamming the lid of one down as she shot a faster clone. At least this time, they weren't armed or armored. Their guns and suits hung on the wall.

As the room devolved, she hoped Nyx was having an easier time.

\--

The way to the camera room was unsettlingly clear, not only for the new level of guards around, but based on the patterns of the last week. She didn't need to be prescient to know she was being funneled into a trap.

When she reached the hidden door, it stood invitingly open. Everything in her screamed not to go in, but even if she didn't much care about destroying the client's tapes anymore, she needed access to their surface to space communicator if she wanted to get word to the _Raza_. It was that or blow something up, anyway, and silly her, she hadn't packed her explosives.

Nyx rolled her head and shoulders, loosening up for the fight ahead. And then she moved forward, quick and decisive.

She caught a blow coming from a guard waiting just inside the door, jammed her elbow into his stomach, pulled the gun from his hand and turned it on him. He exploded into dust and she kept moving. 

The hallway was long and blank, nothing like the palatial over-decoration of the parts of the resort seen by guests. It was pocked with doors, and through each door streamed guards. A deluge of them.

But in the long run, Nyx always had the advantage. This was a very long run. 

By the time she made it to the camera room, she was pouring sweat, and there was a stitch in her side, and the hallway was filled with the dust of dispersed clones. 

The camera room was behind the lobby waterfall, and looked out over the lobby through a one way mirror. Being within the water was almost otherworldly and she took a moment, just a moment, to look out at the world through that streaming veil. The rush and burble of it was soothing, after the pandemonium of the hallway, and her breathing evened.

She took her seat and started to search for the surface to space communications, pulling up the camera feed on the safe as she did so. 

" _Raza_ , this is Nyx," she said. The room in front of the safe _was_ the Transfer Transit room, and Two was there, fighting a constantly replenishing supply of guards. She itched to help, but this _was_ helping. Two had managed to deactivate two of the boxes already, and she was holding her own. She'd be fine. " _Raza_ , come in. Things went bad."

Finally, Five appeared on screen, eyebrows drawn together with concern. "Are you guys okay?"

"For the moment," Nyx said. "But we need to get out of here. Subtlety's out the window, have Six land the _Marauder_ by the pool."

"You need backup? We heard chatter, but it was coded, I couldn't figure out what was going on."

Nyx glanced away from Five and to Two just in time to see her take a shotgun blast to the chest. On the screen, tiny as it was, the footage a little grainy, it took her a second to realize what had happened. Two stumbled back and then lunged forward, taking out the guy who had shot her.

"Two's hit," Nyx said, and her voice sounded very distant. She was standing, she realized, turning. "Send backup."

"Nyx, what do you -- Nyx! Nyx!" If her own voice was distant, Five might as well have been speaking in tongues. 

The client and the job didn't matter anymore, but Nyx had just enough professionalism to sink the rest of her clip into the hard drive before she ran for the safe.

Visions of the future competed with catastrophes as she ran; that she'd seen Two get shot before no longer mattered. Her knowledge of the nanites didn't matter. That there was only one guard left, that she'd disabled the Transfer Transit boxes -- none of it mattered. If she didn't get to Two right now, Two would die, and it would be her fault.

She couldn't do it again, not after Milo. She couldn't -- she couldn't let another person she loved die. It didn't matter if she'd never said it, never even allowed herself to think it. What mattered was that she could change things. She could get there. She could save Two.

She skidded around the final corner at a dead sprint and found Two standing in front of the safe door, boots covered in the Transfer Transit dust. The boxes were dark and empty, and Two was grimacing, her hand pressed to her chest. The wound spread was wider than her palm and her shirt was a bloody mess.

Behind them, there was the ear-popping twist of time and space that meant the Blink Drive had been used.

"Glad you're here," Two said. "I need a little help with the door."

Nyx took Two's face in her hands, studying her carefully. She was pale, her mouth tight with pain, but she was healing as Nyx watched, the buckshot forced out of her mending flesh and falling to the floor with a steady ping-ping-ping. "You're alive," she said tremulously.

"I am," Two agreed slowly, looking a bit confused.

Nyx kissed her, hard and desperate. When she pulled back, Two looked no less confused.

"You didn't have to do that," Two said, puzzled. "Our covers are beyond blown."

"Screw," Nyx said deliberately, "our covers." And she kissed Two again, but more gently. She was asking too much, that was clear, but she wasn't -- she couldn't -- she would take what she could, and damn the consequences.

And then Two started to kiss her back, tentatively.

That, of course, was when Three and the Android burst in, guns drawn. Three whistled lowly. "Sorry to interrupt," he said. "Looks like the cavalry isn't as needed as I thought."

Two turned her face away and discreetly spat a shot fragment into her palm. "The cavalry can break the safe and do the heavy lifting," she said. "I have a date with some forceps."

The Android knelt by the door to the safe, but she looked at them before she began her work. "Six has the first aid kit ready for you."

Nyx slid her arm around Two's waist and supported her to the _Marauder_. It was a sign of how bad the injury was that Two didn't protest. It looked fatal, but she'd survived fatal things before -- Nyx didn't know how much to worry, and so settled on "a lot."

When they reached the _Marauder_ , Six took Two's other side and together they helped her to the floor. Nyx sat with her, holding Two's head in her lap while Six began to pick the shot fragments out of her chest and stomach.

"This is real?" Two asked.

"I'm not sick enough to have dreams like this," Nyx told her.

"I might be," Two said. "After Eos-7, when Six and I were stuck here, when I thought you were dead --"

"Shh," Nyx said, smoothing Two's hair. "Tell me later. How's she look?" she asked Six.

"If you like seeing the insides of people, she looks great," Six said. "Healing fast, at least. Just trying to get the shot out before she heals around it. She might need a transfusion when we get back to the ship, I've got no idea how fast she can make up blood loss."

It took the Android and Three multiple trips to get all of the money loaded on the _Marauder_ , and when they were done, the Android went wordlessly to the pilot's chair and Blinked them straight into the _Raza_ 's bay.

"I will bring a stretcher," she said, heading for the doors.

"I can walk," Two said, trying to sit up. Nyx forced her back down, and the Android looked down at her.

"I don't advise trying," the Android said. "If you insist, I will render you unconscious." And then, in the mostly charming but somewhat creepy way she had, she added, "For your own good."

Two rolled her eyes and relaxed back into Nyx's lap. "Fine."

\--

Once they got to the med-bay, the Android took over for Six. She hooked Two up to some synthetic blood and scanned her a few times, looking for any missed pieces, and finally, begrudgingly, the Android said, "Your nanites will finish repairing all the remaining damage in the next day or two. You should get lots of rest and eat well. The damage was... quite extensive."

"Thank you," Two said, sitting up on the edge of the bed.

"It would be my medical recommendation," the Android said, "not to let anyone shoot you with a shotgun again."

"Thank you, Android," Two said, drier this time.

"I will go assist with the cargo," the Android said.

Left alone, Nyx took a step forward so that she was between Two's knees. "That... conversation we were having," she said. "I'd like to finish it."

"Oh?" Two asked. She took refuge in inscrutability when she was uncertain. That had been part of Nyx's data from the very beginning. She wasn't so inscrutable now.

"I think it was going something like this," Nyx said, resting her hands on Two's thighs and rubbing her thumbs up and down.

"Are you sure?" Two asked. Her tone was so flat that it took a moment for Nyx to realize she meant, _are you sure you want to?_ and not, _get off of me_.

Nyx smiled and said, "Are you going to kiss me or--" Two's lips cut her off, swallowing the rest of her sentence. They'd kissed a lot over the past week -- casual pecks, heated make-outs, lazy post-coital indulgences. This was better by far, because it wasn't Nicki kissing Tova, it was Nyx kissing Two.

When they finally separated, they rested their foreheads together. Two said carefully, "Do you know what you're getting yourself into?"

"I always do," Nyx said.

"I'm not... good at casual," Two said.

"I'm not looking for casual," Nyx said.

This time, Nyx didn't have to ask if Two would kiss her. Two pulled her in, hooked her calves around Nyx's thighs, sank her hands into Nyx's hair. She kissed Nyx until they were both breathless.

When they left the med-bay, they did so together.


End file.
